Kamis, 18 November 2010

Great Antenna

Outdoor Antenna Motor Rotor HD 2805

Very happy with performance of the antenna and the vendor.

1. I installed this product in my attic and it brings in more stations than the FCC web site says I should be able to (when placed in the corner of the attic in the direction of TV transmitters). Reception was a bit degraded if placed where HVAC ducting obstructed the signal. I wish that I had bought this a long time ago rather than messing with set-top antennas (which had to be relocated for each station and lost signal when an aircraft passed by or the AC fan came on).

2. Note that control of rotation (power for the motor) is sent up the coax antenna cable so they are serious about the 50' set-top box to antenna limit. (You can't just rig it to the house' cable input and get TV in every room through the cable splitter.) There are two outputs from the set-top control box.

3. My antenna would not rotate so I called the company. The representative talked me through troubleshooting and we found a wire that was not soldered to the circuit board inside the antenna housing. They sent me a replacement immediately without waiting for me to return the original so I had uninterrupted reception.

We own a cabin in the woods. We have tried many types of antennas since the introduction of digital converters. None would pull a signal from this distance. We installed this unit within a half hour. We immediatley got 2 channels. Might not seem like much to others but . Just having the ability to watch the news. Has made a world of differance to us.

I bought this antenna to install on my sailboat which is docked in Los Angeles Harbor at Wilmington, CA. Most of TV stations' transmitting towers are located on Mt. Wilson 35 miles away. My friend who recommended Lava antennas told me I could probably receive about 20 channels. After I installed it on a removable 6' mast, I was pulling in a total of 91 channels! I am simply amazed by that number. Of course most of those have programming that doesn't interest me at all. But that's no reflection on the antenna. Someone else said this antenna is cheaply built. That may be so but it still looks like it will hold up OK. It had to be well designed to do perform this well. I'm eager to see how it does when I take the boat to Catalina Island which is about 20 miles farther away from the transmitting towers.

1. I installed this product in my attic and it brings in more stations than the FCC web site says I should be able to (when placed in the corner of the attic in the direction of TV transmitters). Reception was a bit degraded if placed where HVAC ducting obstructed the signal. I wish that I had bought this a long time ago rather than messing with set-top antennas (which had to be relocated for each station and lost signal when an aircraft passed by or the AC fan came on).

2. Note that control of rotation (power for the motor) is sent up the coax antenna cable so they are serious about the 50' set-top box to antenna limit. (You can't just rig it to the house' cable input and get TV in every room through the cable splitter.) There are two outputs from the set-top control box.

3. My antenna would not rotate so I called the company. The representative talked me through troubleshooting and we found a wire that was not soldered to the circuit board inside the antenna housing. They sent me a replacement immediately without waiting for me to return the original so I had uninterrupted reception.

I live in Santa Clara, CA -- 45 miles south of San Francisco (where most of the local channels broadcast for us). I moved into a duplex (apartment) during a remodel, and I needed a video feed when the Olympics were on this summer. Standard indoor antennas weren't working for me. I found this compact, amplified antenna on the web. So I bought it, and mounted it on a 7' piece of 3/4" PVC pipe in our living room (rental and all...) and secured it in the corner of our living room. It worked great. We got well over 50 channels of free broadcast HDTV). These included NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and a whole host anything from independent stations to foreign-language channels. (Warning: we found that at least 2 channels were dedicated to cartoons 24 hours a day, which didn't make bedtime for our youngster any easier.) Admittedly...using this indoors, some of the channels briefly dropped video resolution occasionally, but it rarely seemed to be an issue with "local" channels. I can only guess how well this would have worked had I mounted it outside.

It's small enough to easily fit in an attic, so depending on what kind of roof you have...you might find it works great from there. It's light and easy to handle. I don't know how well it will weather a windstorm (it seems sturdy enough), but years of UV exposure to the plastic parts is a question mark. But for 4 months or so now it has worked great for us from our living room. In my book, it has already paid for itself.

Didn't have any connection in my kitchen from our satellite dish and wanted something for the 19" LCD TV we hung on the kitchen wall. Bought a Belkin Pure / AV antenna and it was only slightly better than rabbit ears. (Received a couple of channels and the picture was fair sometimes and terrible others) Saw some reviews for the Lava HD-2805 and purchased it from Amazon. As usual Amazon got the product to me very quickly. I pulled it out of the box and connected it to the TV. The picture was crystal clear. Wasn't sure if the antenna would work in the attic because of a tile roof but I wanted to place it there if it would work. I set the antenna up in the attic and found the picture to be fantastic. Receive all 18 channels that transmit from 45 to 50 miles away and no need to turn the antenna. All of the channels come in very clear even though some transmit from an almost 90 degree location difference. Couldn't be happier with this antenna and highly recommend it.

I think people who rate this low are not looking at it properly. First of all, there's is no such thing as an HD Antenna (It just sells better to call it an HD Antenna). Antenna's pick up signals, they don't care if its VHF, UHF or your microwave oven. So people who wanted to replace their working antenna in remote areas are foolish because the bigger the antenna the better. This Lava is great for people in areas where there ARE signals in the area but they are just weak. The bottom line is if you don't have a signal in your area this antenna isn't going to magically pick it up. It needs something to work with. Now let me tell you what I wanted it for: I wanted it as an INSIDE antenna! Its not a big monster like you see on a roof but its bigger than the set top antennas designed to receive strong local signals. I live on a second floor apartment and could only receive 3 channels (43.1,2,3) or I could buy cable. But with the Lava 2805 ( LAVA UHF/VHF Outdoor HDTV Antenna with Motor Rotor HD-2805)I can now get 15 channels! The best part is I'm getting channel 2, which is among the hardest to receive and wasn't even on the industry's coverage maps for my area. The flat design is good cause I could get it real tight to my ceiling. PLEASE NOTE: The difference of only a few inches in mounting height made a HUGE reception difference for me. Get it as high as you can and put your bunny ears to shame! P.S. The 3 channels I was getting before was with a powered RCA set top antenna from Sears.

We bought this at the end of January 2011 so have had it for almost five months. A fair trial. So far, so good. It was easy to set up on the roof, connects to our internal cabling, and does what it should. My husband was skeptical when it arrived, he thought it looked flimsy and wouldn't last, but put it up for me anyway. We are about 25 miles away from the transmitters in a hilly, rural area and an internal antenna would not work for us.

Until this time we had satellite at about $75/month which we barely watched, we were watching more local channels than anything else. Now we get 3 PBS channels and multiple on some of the other broadcasters too, all in HD (when they broadcast in HD, which will be more and more). I was sick of paying every month for channels we didn't watch and not being able to get channels I did want. I subscribe to Netflix and Hulu for the rest of our viewing. Net result -huge reduction in cost. YMMV.

Good antenna. Works like it is supposed to. I live about 70 miles from New Orleans and I get all the channels available. The picture is much clearer than before, and the rotor works well. I was worried about the antenna perched upon the top of a 35 foot pole because we've had some winds accompanying cold fronts, but the antenna is so light that it just bends with the breeze, and it stays in position. I've had it up for over a month, and I've only used the rotor once. This is a good buy. I'm so impressed with it that I'm going to order one for my nephew who lives in a fringe area also.